Answering shared needs

China and Brazil are working together to establish an AI ecosystem that can promote sustainable development and social progress

China is an excellent example of how to make science, technology and education a driving force for economic and social progress.

In 2025, China’s research and development spending exceeded 3.9 trillion yuan ($576 billion), with the R&D spending intensity reaching 2.8 percent of GDP, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. The total number of R&D personnel in the country ranked first in the world in 2024. During the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China achieved a series of significant breakthroughs in fields such as quantum technology, life sciences, material sciences and space sciences. According to China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, in the field of artificial intelligence, China has developed several general-purpose models reaching international advanced levels, with some models achieving accuracy rates exceeding 95 percent, and it has created over 100 benchmark application scenarios. AI has empowered a wide range of industries, contributing to China’s high-quality development. This progress is closely linked to the development of China’s education sector during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. According to the Ministry of Education, over this period, China’s higher education system produced 55 million graduates. Vocational education supplied over 70 percent of the new high-quality, highly skilled personnel for modern industries, supporting the cultivation and development of new productive capacities.

These achievements are the outcomes of the enormous investment that China has made in technology, science and education for the benefit of its society in the past several decades. What China has achieved in its economic and social development deserves attention and should be shared as best practices worldwide.

In the spirit of sharing best practices and collaborating for the common good, China has been an incredible partner for Brazil in domains such as health, industry, green energy, telecommunications and AI. In April, China and Brazil signed a memorandum of understanding on AI research and development, human capacity building programs and the technological infrastructure for AI. Among the planned activities are the development of AI solutions adapted for the Brazilian context such as language translator systems, cybersecurity solutions and the creation of an interoperable data platform in a cloud environment. Furthermore, the MoU aims to promote exchanges of researchers, technical visits and development of joint courses and programs.

Another remarkable collaboration was established in October 2025, between the National Institute of the Semi-Arid and China Agricultural University. This collaboration seeks to leverage the best competency and expertise of both countries in a complementary way for their mutual benefit. Brazil is one of the world’s largest food producers, with vast experience in tropical agriculture and knowledge of diverse soils and biomes, while China has a huge capacity for innovation and high-tech manufacturing. Therefore, Brazil and China are natural and complementary partners to develop solutions for family farming based on high-end technology powered by AI and joint human capacity building programs.

China and Brazil have collaborated in this area for several years, producing meaningful results. For example, some rural producers who used to spend over 20 days harvesting a hectare of rice now complete the operation in one day using Chinese agricultural machinery. In 2025, an MoU was signed between the Institute for Digital Economy and Artificial Systems in Xiamen, China, and the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, focusing on AI policy development, joint research and talent cultivation to address common challenges faced by both countries such as the shortage of AI specialists in fields such as AI governance and safety, development of standardized protocols for data sharing, and certification programs for algorithmic transparency, among other things.

Beyond these examples, there are networks and laboratories involving Brazil and China, such as the China-BRICS AI Development and Cooperation Center, which includes representatives from BRICS countries and aims to leverage AI technologies to promote sustainable development, economic growth and social progress among the BRICS members. Furthermore, in 2025, China and Brazil inaugurated China-Brazil Belt and Road Joint Laboratory on Tropical Microbiology for the prevention and research of infectious diseases. This initiative aims to strengthen bilateral cooperation in the health field to combat existing and future infectious diseases through prevention, preparedness and response.

The aforementioned examples demonstrate the collaborative relationship between China and Brazil as well as their shared commitment to creating win-win solutions in a sustainable way. Although the projects currently focus on both countries, their results can be shared globally, since the issues addressed, such as the shortage of AI specialists and the lack of frameworks that allow the development of AI or the creation of an AI ecosystem, are pervasive among Global South countries. These countries are generally absent from debates regarding some regulations and frameworks for AI that are currently being created by the West and used as templates for the rest of the world. The problem is that these “global” frameworks do not correctly reflect the reality of some developing countries.

Some Global South countries face unequal realities, exhibiting different levels of maturity in AI, whether in terms of technical capacity, infrastructure or regulation. The cooperation between China and Brazil is very beneficial as it involves two major Global South countries working together to find ways to address their own problems that are also problems of other developing countries.

Collaboration and cooperation are the best ways to move forward. No one can aspire to a better future without collaborating and cooperating with others, especially in the digital domain, where AI knows no borders.

The author is the head of the Phi Robotics Research Group at the Informatics Institute at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.